What to expect
Von Stroheim treats luxury as evidence: uniforms, rooms, money, and social ritual reveal a world built on performance and appetite. The surviving release remains a forceful fragment of a much larger design.
How to ease in
Begin with the con rather than the production history. Once the false count’s method is clear, the elaborate setting becomes part of how credibility is manufactured. The MoMA and SFSFF restoration runs 147 minutes at 22 fps. BFI also lists 77 minutes without identifying the presentation in detail. Keep these records separate, and check the edition before planning a screening.
Heads-up
Open the note ↓ Close the note ↑
The count needs everyone to recognise the costume before they examine the man inside it. I watch the surroundings do half of his lying for him.
— Momo
Credits & versions
Version map
Sources for the facts
- Wikidata
- Library of Congress Linked Data Service
- British Film Institute — Foolish Wives
- AFI Catalog - Foolish Wives (1922), production credits
- San Francisco Silent Film Festival - Foolish Wives, restoration record
- MoMA / San Francisco Silent Film Festival — Foolish Wives restoration
- BFI — Foolish Wives, 77-minute catalogue record
Where to go next
Want a gentler, shorter, or stranger next film? Ask Momo for something like this →
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